Dusk Lover
by artemisathena0107
Summary: When Rose finds Dimitri and Mia together, will anyone be able to save her from killing herself? Will the thought of guarding her younger sister Vasilisa Dragomir be able to pull her out of depression or will the turmoil caused by the only surviving double-specialization Moroi drive her over the edge? R
1. Chapter 1 SCARS

CHAPTER ONE

SCARS

"I… what?" I stuttered in disbelief.

"Love fades, mine has," Dimitri told me simply, his practiced Guardian mask stoic and unchanging while I was fighting tears, I never cried, it didn't come naturally to me.

"Not for Mia obviously," I spat hatefully with venom in my tone, Dimitri's impassive expression becoming disapproving and angry.

"I didn't Roza," he promised, "I swear I didn't. I love you Roza, too much." Dimitri's eyes were filled with truth but

"You have no right to take my heart and shatter it after making me open up to you and telling you everything!" I yelled at him, "I loved you Dimitri, no, scratch that, I still do! But I don't trust you anymore," Dimitri's face fell and he put his hand on my shoulder, in an attempt to comfort me but I shook it off immediately.

"Roza, don't be like this," he begged.

"Out," I whispered.

"What?" Dimitri asked, not having heard me.

"Out! Get out!" I screamed at him, flopping onto my bed as he walked away in defeat. I walked into the bathroom and grabbed the razor, dropping my clothes to the floor.

I climbed into the bath tub and, careful to avoid major arteries, started slicing at my flesh. Wrists. My thighs. All of my forearm. My stomach. My back. I fell asleep soon after, razor in hand, passing out from exhaustion.

"Stupid Mia, ruining everything," I grumbled sourly under my breath as I got out of the bath. I ran the tap to wash away the dried blood that stained the white ceramic tub. I showered quickly and dried my hair before pulling on a pair of loose cargo pants that were made from thin black cotton but still managed to show that my legs were toned and highlight my hips. I tied my hair up in a high ponytail and pulled on a tight white t-shirt with no sleeves. "Crap!" You could see the cuts that scarred my flesh all over my arms and I couldn't do anything about it. Even though it was night to humans and we were in Montana, it was the height of summer and boiling hot so we wore the summer kit. "Sod it," I huffed, slinging my black knapsack over my shoulder, locking the dorm door from inside and jumping out of the window. I was only on the second floor and Alberta had basically organised for the group to meet below my window.

"Rose! Wake up!" Alberta yelled up from the group below me. There were forty or so novices sat by the track, which was situated a hundred or so feet from my window. She was stood by Stan and Emil in front of a small group of Moroi that had come to watch, including Mia, Tasha and Adrian. Yay…

"Just coming Guardian Petrov," I called down, shoving my phone, notepad and pencil case into my bag before throwing it out of the window and onto the ground.

"No Rosie!" My eleven-year old sister Lissa screamed. Guilt shivered through me but I shook it off.

"God Rose, don't jump down, use the steps like a normal person," Edward hollered from his seat next to Alex. I just grinned at him.

"When have I ever been normal?" I asked before jumping from the window sill, doing a flip, landing in a crouch, doing a forward roll to reduce the impact before grabbing my bag as I stood up and walking up to the group, wiggling into a spot between Eddie and Mason: my only real friends other than Tasha.

"Fair enough," I heard Eddie say and I laughed at him automatically. I really wasn't in the mood.

"Well, that was quite the start to your lesson today but, now we must move onto matters more pressing than Miss Hathaway's methods of travel." Alberta began and a few people laughed quietly, "Today we are going to have a tournament between the novices and then the winner will spar with Guardian Alto, then myself, then Guardian Tanner. Normal rules, nothing above the shoulders, pin to win, step off the mat and you're disqualified, first up, Abbot versus Ainsley."

Most novices were kicked out of the tournament for steeping off of the blue mats, a fact that I used to my advantage. When we circling at the beginning of each round, I'd position myself at the edge of the mat, wait for them to make a move and flip them off the map onto the grass.

The tournament flew by and I won each round, beating both Eddie and Mason with only a little difficulty. No one had noticed the cuts up my arms yet, a factor that I was somewhat disappointed in them for, they were Guardians in training after all, we're meant to be observant.

"Hathaway versus Alto." I looked up when my name was called after downing a whole bottle of cold water and wiped sweat from my forehead with my t-shirt exposing my perfectly toned body. I saw everyone but Alberta and Stan looking, even Dimitri, who I glared at until he turned away. I just flashed a grin at Mason and Eddie before walking over to the mats. Stan grinned menacingly at me, inching around the edge of mat and I mirrored the movement. He growled and threw a punch at me, growing impatient with my lack of aggression. I caught his fist and kicked his foot out, pulling him over and throwing him off of the mat. Alberta announced, "Alto disqualified. Hathaway versus me."

I held up a finger to show that I needed a minute and Alberta nodded as I walked over to Eddie. He threw me a water bottle that I guessed was his, and started to give me tips from when he'd seen Alberta sparing in the gym. She was quick. She wasn't that strong but she was powerful and accurate with her blows. I nodded, absorbing the information.

"Go get her, for all the times she's given you detention," Mason encouraged. I chuckled.

"Actually, I don't think Guardian Petrov's ever given me detention, she's the closest thing to a mother I have actually. Alberta's the only one that's been with me for my whole life," I mused aloud. I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Alberta wipe away a tear.

"Thanks Rose, if it helps, I think of you as my daughter," she smiled. I stood up and hugged her, careful not to get blood on her shirt from my still bleeding forearms. Still, no one had noticed the huge marks and I was offended that Eddie, Mason and Alberta didn't care enough to ask, if they had noticed them, about the huge gashes across my tanned skin that kept pouring crimson blood.

"Come on Mom," I joked, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the mat. Alberta laughed and grinned, a genuine smile that most had never seen on her face before. We circled on the mat until Alberta darted forward, shooting a kick at my ribs but I flipped out of the way, not once risking the blow that, knowing her technique, would have been a critical hit. She hadn't expected that so I managed to land a punch in her gut when she span round to face me. "Sorry," I apologised quickly before kicking her in the back of the legs. Alberta punched my shoulder with such speed that I barely had time to move out of the way so I still felt most of the blow and lost my balance slightly. I hurriedly regained my composure before grabbing Alberta's wrist when she threw another punched and flipped her, catching her in my arms before laying her down on the floor just outside of the mat.

"Very good Rose," Alberta congratulated, accepting my offer to help her up and giving me a hug.

"Thanks Guardian Petrov," I smiled, taking a bottle of water from a novice in the front row that got knocked out in the second round. "Thanks mate," I said, patting him on the back before walking up to Mikhail. I quickly beat him and sat down by Eddie.

"Hathaway versus Belikov," Alberta announced. Yay...

"Come on then, let's get this over with." I groaned.

"Doesn't affect me," he shrugged, striding over to the mat. I looked at Alberta and she just cocked her head in confusion. "Rose, I have better things to be doing than wait around for you." Dimitri Belikov was in my year and had been my training partner since I was seven. I often thought he was suspicious of who I really was, but he hadn't told me he'd guessed that Lissa, the girl I'd claimed just to be a good friend of, was actually my sister.

"Fuck it," I cursed under my breath, the few novices that had heard looked at me with smirks on their faces. I ran up to the mats, crouching defensively close to the ground. Everyone looked shocked, including Dimitri: I'd never fought like this was. No one had, I was making it up as I went along. Dimitri, unsure of what to do, took a step towards and threw a kick at my head but I rolled out of the way and brought the side of my fist hard into the back of his standing knee. Dimitri's leg gave out and he fell to the floor. I leapt on top of him and straddled him but I hadn't expected him to buck his hips and roll us, stretching my arms out against the mat.

"Oh God Roza," Dimitri whispered, "What have you done this time?" I followed his gaze to my arms where the hundreds of red slashes were bleeding furiously. I snatched my arms away and grabbed my knapsack, walking away from the class, hiding the tears in my eyes. Eddie and Mason ran up behind me and, not caring that I was still in full view of the rest of the class, I broke down in tears when Eddie hugged me. "Roza-" Dimitri started, walking towards me. I pulled myself out of Eddie's arms, tears streaming down my face and blood down my arms.

"What Dimitri? What do you want to tell me now?" I yelled, "That I'm a stupid little kid that's ruining her life? Because I have Janine for that, I don't need you constantly telling me I'm inadequate as well as her." He grabbed my wrist and I screamed out in pain.

"Roza, I'm sorry-" Dimitri quickly apologised as he pulled his bloodied hand away from my wrist and tried to calm me down, but I was howling in pain. I hadn't realised it earlier, but I was actually pretty tired.

"I think you've done enough Belikov," Alberta told him calmly but, you could just hear it, with a little venom. I felt my eyelids drooping and I fell to the ground, my legs crumpling beneath me.

"Roza, wake up, come on Roza," Dimitri begged, apparently having ignored Alberta. He rested his cheek on my face but, even in my weak state, I shook it off.

"If there is one person I'd die for Dimitri, it would be you, but I won't stop this now," I breathed. "Mase, I'm cold." I rambled, the sudden draught chilling me to the bone. Shivering, I rolled onto my side to try and shield myself from the wind but I only shifted my shirt and showed the marks across my stomach and back. Dimitri whimpered in pain and pulled his training sweatshirt and the top he wore underneath it, and laid them on top of me. I started coughing violently, crimson blood spewing from my near blue lips. I felt myself lifted from the ground, my limbs limp and my muscles slack.

"Rosie, let me heal you!" I heard Lissa scream. I flinched at her voice, snuggling into the chest of the person that held me. Dimitri. Yay... Once again...

"Don't let her touch me. Don't let her see me like this Alberta," I mumbled weakly, but loud enough for her to hear my demands. Alberta knew of my real self and I vaguely saw her nod begrudgingly, she held Lissa back, who was kicking and screaming in protest. "And you Belikov, you can put me down," he ignored me. "At least let someone else carry me."

"No can do, Ashford went to the clinic to get the paramedics and Castile is keeping the class in order," Dimitri argued. I groaned, knowing I had only one choice. I took a deep breath, summoning all of my energy.

"Stan!" I shouted. Well, tried to shout. I guess it sounded like I was talking just below normal volume but I was really angry. Guardian Alto turned around upon hearing his name and knowing only I would call him Stan. "Carry me?" I requested sweetly.

Then I fell into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2 I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE

**Hey Everybody, thanks so much for reviews! I love this story so I think I'll remember to keep updating. **

**I don't normally use songs in my Fanfic's but I love Taylor Swift so this chapter and the next contain her songs. **

**DISCLIAMER: I don't own anything but the plotline. All characters and settings, etc. belong to Richelle Mead. The song _I Knew You Were Trouble_ belongs to the amazing Taylor Swift.**

* * *

CHAPTER TWO

I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE

My head was pounding when I woke up, the veins in the side of my head throbbing and pulsing wildly. I groaned loudly. Seven heads snapped up anxiously. Eddie, Aaron and Mason sat on the floor by my bed. Abe was relaxing in a chair between Alberta and Adrian, against the opposite wall and Dimitri stood by the doorway.

"Kiz, are you alright?" Abe asked, his voice sounding calm but his face worried. I looked down at myself and chuckled weakly. My entire stomach was bandaged along with my thighs and arms. I wore a black vest top and soft red shorts, probably because Eddie or Mason had told the nurses I would complain all the time otherwise. They were right.

"I'm fine old man," I replied groggily.

"I'll go tell Dr. Olendzki that you're awake," Eddie offered.

"Not her again," I moaned, making everyone laugh quietly.

"Don't worry Eddie, I'll go," Dimitri offered and I stiffened at his voice. Abe seemed to notice my reaction to Dimitri's presence in the room and took my hand. "It seems I'm not very important to this gathering," he said bitterly.

"You're right, you aren't," I told him with fake cheer.

"Rose! Oh God, are you okay? I thought you were dead and I wanted to see you but they wouldn't let me in, they said you asked not to see me? Then I said there must be some kind of mistake because you're my best friend and-" Mia rambled, after having burst into the room.

"Go away," I interrupted her coldly. Mia stopped to look at me in shock.

"What? But Rose-" I shook my head and Mia left dejectedly.

"Why are you being so mean to her Rose?" Aaron defended, his voice angry. He walked over to the side of my bed.

"Can you guys give us a minute please?" I asked the room. They nodded their heads and left, leaving me with a confused looking Aaron. "Well, I'd been with Dimitri for just over half a year and I love him with all my heart. However, I walked in on Mia and Dimitri making out on my couch yesterday, when she knew that I loved him and that she was the only one we'd told." Aaron's face was void of any emotion and his hands were shaming in his lap. "I'm sorry Ronnie."

"It's alright," he mumbled. "It's better that I knew." I pulled myself into a sitting position and hugged him, stroking his hair. "I'm sorry about Dimitri, Rose."

"What about Dimitri?" the devil himself asked, walking into the room. The two of us glared at him. He sighed and sat in the seat nearest to my bed. I turned back to Aaron, ignoring Dimitri.

"You've got to talk to her Ronnie. She's probably in her room," I guessed. Aaron nodded and stood up.

"Thanks Rose," he said before leaving. As soon as the door shut, Dimitri came and sat where Aaron had been.

"Yay, alone time with Dimitri, joy of joys," I cheered, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Roza, why are you being like this?" Dimitri asked. I just gave him a pointed glare. "I love you Roza, why don't you see that? Why did you cut yourself?" He asked when I didn't answer.

"I thought it was obvious," I finally replied. He flinched at the sharp edge to my response, "I have discovered that my training partner/boyfriend/role-model, was making out with my best friend /friend's girlfriend in my bedroom."

"Roza, we were waiting for you to take you to your surprise party for your eighteenth birthday," Dimitri began.

"Crappy birthday present," I grumbled under my breath. He looked at me pointedly so I shut up and crossed my arms.

"Anyway, when we were waiting, I noticed something wrong with Mia. She was completely out of it, her eyes were glazed over and her face was slack." Dimitri told me, she was being compelled. I gasped, compulsion's illegal, but then again, Lissa had used it many times before, "Then she threw herself at me and started kissing me, I was trying to get her off without hurting her, because she's Moroi, but then you came in. You yelling at me snapped her out of the compulsion and she ran out crying because of what she'd done."

I looked at him.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," I whispered, taking a sudden interest in the linen bed sheets.

"Roza do you love me?" Dimitri asked, cupping my face in his in his large hands. I nodded. "Will you give me a second chance?" I took a deep breath before tentatively shaking my head.

"I need to sort my head out first. I'm not in a good place at the moment, as my cuts could tell you," I explained and Dimitri nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry, I still love you so much but I just need to get my head straight."

"I could help you Roza," Dimitri offered but before I could answer, Dr. Olendzki entered the room.

"Can you go find Mia for me? I need to speak to her," I requested. "Oh, and Lissa?" Dimitri nodded and left after pressing a kiss to my my forehead.

"Right Rosemarie, why did you cut yourself?" I flinched at her question and didn't answer. "Alright, personal reasons. Why did you go to training even though the cuts wouldn't stop bleeding?"

"I have to train, it's my life and my future on the line," I told her truthfully.

"Apparently you jumped from a second floor window," Dr Olendzki trailed off, obviously wanting me to explain why.

"It's easier and faster than taking the stairs," I shrugged nonchalantly. She wrote something down on her clipboard. "When can I leave?"

"Probably later on today, you can go back to class tomorrow but no training for the next four days. You'll rip open the stitches," Dr. Olendzki told me.

"I have stitches?" that was news to me.

"Lots of them." she told me before leaving.

"Detailed answer doc," I thought, clapping sarcastically in my head.

I was discharged just before lunch so I went to my room and sat on my bed. I took the darkness from my younger sister Lissa and became infuriated with Dimitri. This was his fault! If he had never come here then I would be fine right now rather than cut up and hurting. I grabbed my guitar from its case beneath my bed. I got rid of the darkness by writing songs, cheesy, I know, but it helped me to get the emotion out of my system. I started singing the one I'd written when I'd heard about Dimitri and Tasha.

"_Once upon a time_

_A few mistakes ago_

_I was in your sights_

_You got me alone_

_You found me_

_You found me_

_You found me_

_I guess you didn't care_

_And I guess I liked that_

_And when I fell hard_

_You took a step back_

_Without me_

_Without me_

_Without me_

_And he's long gone_

_When he's next to me_

_And I realise_

_The blame is on me_

_Cos I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Till you put me down_

_Oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Now I'm lying on the cold hard ground_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_No apologies_

_He'll never see you cry_

_Pretend he doesn't know_

_That he's the reason why_

_You're drowning_

_You're drowning_

_You're drowning_

_I heard you moved on_

_From whispers on the street_

_A new notch on our belt_

_Is all I'll ever be_

_And now I see_

_Now I see_

_Now I see_

_He was long gone_

_When he met me_

_And I realise_

_The joke is on me_

_Cos I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Till you put me down_

_Oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Now I'm lying on the cold hard ground_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_And the saddest fear_

_Comes creeping in_

_That you never loved me_

_Or her_

_Or anyone_

_Or anything_

_Yeah_

_Cos I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Till you put me down_

_Oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_So shame on me now_

_Flew me to places I've never been_

_Now I'm lying on the cold hard ground_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_Oh oh_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_Trouble trouble trouble_

_I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

_Trouble trouble trouble_," I sang, strumming chords on my guitar to go with the lyrics. I then scribbled down the words in my songbook before writing a note about what had happened to make me write this song and putting the guitar chords in.

My songbook was like a diary and only had to know a few basic facts about the personalities of myself and Dimitri to perfectly understand most of them. It was slightly worrying actually, that someone could know so little about Dimitri and I but find out so much about our relationship by reading a single song.


	3. Chapter 3 RED

**I'm so wonderful, two updates in an evening? Might be another if I finish it but, for now, here's Chapter 3.**

**DISCLAIMER: All belongs to Richelle Mead, apart from the awesome song _RED_ by Taylor Swift and the plot.**

* * *

CHAPTER THREE

RED

After lunch, I changed into my summer kit. I was meant to be in Slavic Art but instead I went to watch one of Dimitri's classes. Dimitri and I, being the best novices, took two classes each to help with our own training and I knew I wasn't allowed to participate in any training but I was still going to watch and take notes. I couldn't afford to miss a single class this close to graduation.

I walked through the gym and saw Dimitri running laps with a group of novices a few years younger than me while Alberta did bleep tests with the other half of the class. When Dimitri saw me he sprinted right over to me and hugged me tightly around my waist. I was so glad to see him that I didn't stop the contact.

"God Roza, are you alright? Did Mia or Princess Dragomir ever come to see you?" he asked, holding me close to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck. I chuckled softly at his assumption that Lissa was the Dragomir Princess.

"Lissa did, Mia didn't visit me but I'm fine. I'll go find her later," I promised. "I'm not allowed to train till Friday." my face fell when I told him. Dimitri looked at me in surprise, "What?"

"You're actually telling me rather than trying to do it anyway?" I nodded with a sly grin on my face. "I have class, how would you like to take a group?"

"Um okay?" I answered uncertainly. Dimitri chuckled and pressed a kiss to my forehead before taking my hand and leading me to the group of novices waiting on the track.

"Pair up then number yourselves 1 and 2," Dimitri instructed and they quickly got into groups of two. "One's over here, two's on the other side of the track." Immediately, the group split in half, ending up in two clusters of seven. "Group A with me for weights, Group B with Miss Hathaway for technique and 'story time,'" Dimitri told them using his fingers to make air quotes around the last two words.

"Hey everybody, I'm Rose Hathaway and Dimitri's ditched me with you guys, not really telling me what to do, so I'm just going to show you some basic moves okay?" I asked my class when Dimitri lead his to the gym, leaving me with no instructions.

"Dimitri is Mr. Belikov right?" a student asked. The group I had looked like they were around fourteen years old and there was one girl and six boys. I nodded, trying not to laugh.

"Right, pair up and follow me." I stood up as they shuffled around, getting into pairs. The girl was left by herself so I slowed to walk next to her, "What's your name?"

"Brooke Miller," she answered nervously. Her blonde hair was tied up into a neat ponytail that was perfectly straight and long enough to brush her shoulder blades. Brooke had grey-blue eyes, a soft blush and delicate features.

"Can I go with you?" I asked and she nodded eagerly as we entered the gym. "Great," I thanked her before turning back to the small group. "Grab a mat between two and bring it over here." I walked with Brooke to pull a blue mat off of the trolley and carried it back to the spot in the middle of the gym.

Soon we'd made a square of mats and I saw Dimitri bringing his group over to mine as I was about to demonstrate a good way to keep your opponent pinned. "Comrade I only just set the mats up," I moaned and Dimitri chuckled.

"That's wonderful news Roza, I thought my class would like to join yours as you're doing technique." he told me. I shrugged before asking him the name of the three girls in his group. "Dana, Olivia and May."

"Dana pair up with Brooke, May and Olivia go together," I instructed. "Right Comrade, let's do this." I grinned at him. Dimitri smirked back and the class started chanting 'Fight! Fight!' over and over. "Okay, if you pin a Strigoi ever, you're going to want to keep like that while you stake them." I pointed at Dimitri, "Kneel."

"Roza," he moaned and I just pointed at the floor. "Fine," Dimitri huffed, kneeling on the ground.

"Right, so if they end up on their knees," a few of the guys sniggered at this but I just glared at them and they were silent immediately. "As I was saying, if they end up on their knees, get behind them and knee or kick them hard right here." I instructed, pointing to a spot between the shoulder blades. "Then flip them over and straddle them, just on the hips, and hold your left forearm to their neck while you stake them."

I then demonstrated, not kicking Dimitri too hard, and when I pressed my forearm against Dimitri's neck, I heard the class muttering to themselves. I was still straddling Dimitri, when I realised what they were talking about.

"Roza? Ignore them," Dimitri told me when he noticed my watery eyes.

"I've got to go Dimitri, I'll be late for music," I explained pathetically before getting up hurriedly and exiting the gym. I heard Dimitri shouting loudly at the class as I ran through the corridors to the music department, grabbing my guitar from my dorm on the way. There was still another half hour until Music so I went into the empty classroom opposite my normal room and sat with my guitar in my hands, playing random chords and thinking about Dimitri.

He wasn't mine and he never could be, I had to let him go as he'd tried to do to me so many times. I knew it would hurt him but he'll find someone else.

I put some lyrics together in my head and started playing.

_"Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street_

_Faster than the wind_

_Passionate as sin, ended so suddenly_

_Loving him is like trying to change your mind_

_Once you're already flying through the free fall_

_Like the colors in autumn_

_So bright just before they lose it all_

_Losing him was blue like I'd never known_

_Missing him was dark grey all alone_

_Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met_

_But loving him was red_

_Loving him was red_

_Touching him is like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you_

_Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song_

_Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer_

_Regretting him was like wishing you never found out love could be that strong_

_Losing him was blue like I'd never known_

_Missing him was dark grey all alone_

_Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met_

_But loving him was red_

_Oh red burning red_

_Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes_

_Tell myself it's time now, gotta let go_

_But moving on from him is impossible_

_When I still see it all in my head_

_Burning red!_

_Darling it was red!_

_Oh, losing him was blue like I'd never known_

_Missing him was dark grey all alone_

_Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met_

_Cause loving him was red yeah yeah red_

_We're burning red_

_And that's why he's spinning round in my head_

_Comes back to me burning red_

_Yeah yeah_

_Cause love was like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street_," I finished, playing a final chord on my guitar before looking up at the person in front of me, way up, like 6'7" up. "Hey Dimitri," I mumbled uneasily.

"Roza, who was that about?" Dimitri asked seriously. I'd forgotten he took Music. Well, that meant he didn't buy my excuse earlier. I put my guitar into its case and scribbled down the last of the lyrics.

"Ron, who else?" I joked, trying to avoid the question but Dimitri wasn't buying it, "You Comrade," I mumbled, knowing full well that he'd heard me.

"Roza, I haven't left you, you're pushing me away. I want to be with you more than anything," Dimitri confessed but still managed to make it defiant.

"So this is my fault! My fault that I love you enough to suffer so you can have children? Because I know you want kids Comrade and I can never give you any!" I clamped my hand over my mouth too late. I really had just shouted at him but even worse was what I had just shouted at him.

"Roza, if I have you, I don't need children. You are my life, my air, my heart. You are the finest work of art, a masterpiece of perfection's hand, lusted after but worthy of more than man. You are the stars in my sky, the flicker of a flame, the brightest ever butterfly, and the lion you can't tame. You are the leaves on the trees, the petals on a rose, the whisper of the fresh breeze and the secret no one knows. You are the one that I love Roza," Dimitri spoke earnestly, with such passion in his words, "To perfection no one is closer."

"I love you too Dimitri," I admitted before crashing my lips to his. I tangled my fingers in his hair and Dimitri picked me up, not once breaking the kiss. I broke away to whisper instructions to him, "Go through the door at the back of the storage cupboard and there's a small staircase. Go up there," Dimitri nodded so I resumed the kiss while he walked over to the storage closet, still holding me and slinging my guitar case over his shoulder. Just minutes later we were climbing the narrow staircase and ended up in the clock room.

"Is this the space above the clock?" Dimitri asked in wonder and I nodded. "How did you find it?" I froze at that question. I'd come up here once to kill myself after my parents Eric and Rhea died along with my brother Andre, but Dimitri didn't have to know that. I now used it as a second bedroom I guess, often coming up here at night or to practice on the punching bags. I climbed onto the large couch in the corner.

"Just stumbled upon it when I was hiding from Stan," I lied. Dimitri didn't notice. His eyes were filled with lust as I pulled my jacket and shoes off on the couch. "Comrade, I want you," I purred and Dimitri jolted to my side. He initiated another kiss but this was deeper, hungrier. Soon most of our clothes were on the floor.

"Roza, do you want this?" Dimitri asked. I nearly laughed and slipped my hands down his boxer as an answer. "I take that as a yes," Dimitri growled, picking me up and lying me down on the couch. He started to undress me and, well, take a guess at what happened next.

"Dimitri?" I managed through my heavy breathing, he hummed in acknowledgment, "I love you." Dimitri rolled onto his side and wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me closer into him.

"I love you too," he whispered into my ear, "Always and forever." I giggled.

"Comrade?" I mumbled sweetly.

"Yeah Roza," Dimitri moaned as I poked his shoulder to get his attention.

"Always and forever mean the same thing," I told him. He chuckled throatily and kissed my forehead.

"Exactly my Roza, exactly."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE  
I hate to be irritating but I'd really appreciate reviews. I know this story hasn't been up long but I had 140 veiws on my first chapter before I posted this and only 6 reviews. I mean, come on guys, that's not even 5% of you reviewing :( **

**Should update soon, **

**Avalon xx**


	4. Chapter 4 FINALITY

**I hate to be annoying, but I've edited the previous chapters to suit a story line I thought of. So if you can't be bothered to read the other chapters (which I advise you do) Mia was making out with Dimitri, Lissa is Rose's 11 year-old sister and Dimitri is in Rose's class.**

* * *

CHAPTER FOUR

FINALITY

"Liss, you look perfect, stop fussing," I told her while my little sister fiddled with her knee length skirt. Lissa had been feeling guilty recently because she couldn't remember who she saw come into our room, so were going to sit down and figure out who compelled Dimitri and Mia after graduation, which was in ten minutes.

"It's not my skirt I'm worried about; it's the person that compelled Mia. If I saw them I'd remember, and I know that they're close to us but I can't remember. It's on the tip of my tongue, you know?" Lissa sighed, exasperated while I shook my head, amazed at her maturity. I chuckled before picking her up and carrying her over to the floor length mirror. I wore my black and white Guardian uniform with my hair braided over my shoulder. Lissa however, wore a light pink blouse with a soft denim skirt. "We're going to be late Rosie!" Lissa screeched, jumping out of my arms and dragging me out of the door.

"We won't be late, I promise," I told her comfortingly. Lissa sighed, fiddling with her hair until I took her hand. "You'll ruin your hair."

"I know I'm just nervous, what if you aren't assigned to me? What will I do then?" Lissa asked anxiously. I stiffened slightly: I'd been nervous about the assignments too. I hugged my little sister close to me.

"We'll jump that hurdle if we come to it Liss," I reassured her, hugging her tightly before leaving her with Aaron and slotting into the line of novices between Liam Devlin and Andrew Friar, waiting for my name to be called.

"Princess Rozalia Dragomir," Alberta called, people started whispering in the audience so I took a deep breath before walking up to the stage. I sat on the stool. "Assigned to her younger sister Vasilisa Dragomir with 52 kills," I felt the tattooist pin back loose wisps of hair before setting to work on the promise mark and the 50 molnija that needed adding to the pair of lightning marks on my neck. I was aware of the murmurs that rippled through the crowd the entire time that I was sat on the stage but I blocked them out and spoke to Lissa instead through the bond.

I had died along with the rest of our family but not before I wrapped Lissa in a cocoon of water and air to cushion the impact. My younger sister however, chose that moment to specialise in Spirit and she brought me back to life. Automatically, I stood up when I felt the tape on my neck and walked over to Lissa, sitting in the seat next to her that was reserved for her Guardian: me.

"She can't be a Guardian, she's Moroi!" someone yelled out from the crowd as Liss threw her arms around my neck.

"She isn't Moroi, this is a joke!" Another anonymous voice protested, sparking a large argument between everyone in the hall. I sighed and, breaking out of Lissa's death grip, stood up on my chair. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room and hundreds of eyes swivelled to me.

"It's true, my name is Princess Rozalia Lara Liliya Dragomir and Vasilisa Dragomir is my sister, Andre was my older brother and my parents were Eric and Rhea." I confirmed, using my ringing, royal voice. The room was quiet until someone pointedly made a flame flicker in their hand. "I specialise in Air and Water." To prove my outrageous statement, I channelled a gust of wind through the room before making water fly from my palms to the walls.

"Why have you got two specialisations?" Dimitri called from the line of graduates. I turned to him.

"My family was odd: I specialised in Air and Water, Andre in Fire and Earth and Lissa specialised in Spirit," I confessed uncertainly. "Lissa, come with me." My sister nodded nervously and followed me to the stage, taking my hand. I pulled my stake out and cut my forearm, opening up my scars. There was a roar of outrage before I called for silence. I held up my arm to show the blood that dripped from the gash then knelt down, "Liss, heal it."

After looking to me with big jade eyes, my platinum-blonde haired sister pressed her small palm to my long cut and, concentrating just a little, released the magic of Spirit. New skin grew from her fingertips and spiralled to bridge the red gap that had just stopped spilling blood because of the tan film that had formed over it. "What else can you do Lissa?" I asked her, already knowing the answer.

"Walk in people's dreams, read auras and thoughts," Liss looked at me to check that she'd said the word right. I nodded and held her hand, "I can heal, make people think they're seeing things that aren't really there, move things with my mind and I brought Rosie back to life when I was nine." I felt my eyes widen. Liss wasn't meant to say that.


	5. Chapter 5 CHANGELING

CHAPTER FIVE  
THE CHANGELING

When I was seventeen (and actually alive), I was in the garden at Court with my little sister Lissa having a 'mind conference, and drawing in our silk bound sketch pads our father Eric had gotten us for our birthday. Being the only 'special' vampire sisters ever meant that no one had known we'd end up having a psychic bond, but we did, so we would talk and try to make each other laugh with funny thoughts or jokes in the middle of important conversations. We sat down on a bench in the middle of the night on December 23rd, day for humans, and were thinking about what presents we were going to get for Christmas from our parents and big brother Andre.

Lissa, Andre and I were special. As three of the five remaining Dragomirs and the children of the reigning monarchs, we were important enough but our specialisations were something else entirely. Lissa specialised in Spirit, she could heal and sneak around in people's dreams, or read minds and see auras while Andre and I specialised in normal elements. However, we specialised in two of them. Andre could control Earth and Fire while I used Air and Water magic. I could control the weather and my twenty year-old brother could create earthquakes and build volcanoes. If my brother and I worked together we could do anything, literally anything.

Our life was perfect, Mom and Dad were King and Queen, we were getting a brilliant education and we were happy.

I used to creep out each day with Andre while Lissa had Geography, to watch the novices train. There was one that particularly fascinated me. Dimitri Belikov. He was eighteen and tall, handsome, strong and brave. He had already killed a Strigoi and I wanted him to be Lissa's Guardian when he graduated. I didn't know that he saw me sat behind dummies with my brother, watching him spar against other novices. I wanted to be like him: to be courageous and good at fighting.

This was my perfect life, until they came.

I heard a scream from inside the house and pulled Lissa behind me. I'd always been braver than she had and taken it upon myself to protect her, Lissa was a weak little thing while I ended up with the strength and body shape of a Dhampir. The Strigoi came out of the house and wiped blood from its mouth, Lissa shivered with fear and the Strigoi stalked towards the two of us. She dropped her pink sketchbook in fright, the red ruby popping out of its place and onto the dewy grass.

Lissa started sobbing when the Strigoi started describing how he brutally slaughtered our parents, and I cried out in anguish when he spoke about killing Andre. The Strigoi was stood a few feet away now and he leapt at us. I remember throwing Lissa behind me and being bitten on the neck. The endorphins did nothing for me. I'd heard that they were beautiful and made people happy but all the toxins bought me were sadness and pain.

Lissa was screaming hysterically as my body shook violently on the grass, venom shooting like fire through my veins.

My skin paled from an elegant tan to a harsh chalk.

My fangs grew more prominent and sharper, cutting into my full red lips.

My eyes burned and stung, turned from a stunning Dragomir jade to to a violent neon green.

My hands were cold and my body became thinner and moved more swiftly when I ran at the Strigoi, who had released his hold on me and was headed for my sister. I tackled him, fighting on instinct and bearing my fangs. I must look threatening, I had thought sarcastically at the time, a glow-eyed, seventeen year old Strigoi.

I froze, the Strigoi wriggling in my grasp. Lissa looked at me, reaching for me with tears in her eyes. I just shook my head sadly before wrenching the Strigoi's head from his body.

"I love you Lissy, I'm sorry but I've got to go. I'll do good for you Liss I promise. You've got to be good alright? Go find Guardian Petrov and tell her what happened ok?" I told my cowering sister gently, stroking her near-white hair. Lissa nodded dutifully.

"Love you Rosie, don't hurt anybody, promise me?" I nodded before kissing her cheek, perfectly aware of the throbbing veins beneath her pale skin. "Bye." I ran to the edge of the woods, from which the Strigoi had first appeared, and waved back weakly.

"Bye Liss, I'll get better and come back for you I swear," I promised and she nodded, returning the wave. "Go find Alberta." She turned away at my instruction and walked slowly back into the house, hesitating and turning back to look at me at least seven times over the short distance.

I picked up the heart-shaped ruby from the floor and bit a small hole into the top of it. Taking the deep purple star-shaped amethyst from my own book, I did the same and pulled the ivory ribbon from my hair before threading the two gems onto it and tying it around my neck.

I wrote four notes into my sketchbook, hoping they would find them.

'Dear Lissa, I know I'm Strigoi now but I promise I will be good, I won't drink blood and I will hunt Strigoi because they killed our family. I love you Liss, keep going to school and represent our bloodline at Court.'

'Guardian Petrov, please know I didn't do this by choice. I did it to protect my sister. I entrust you with her safety and the only remaining Dragomir. Kill me with Belikov, I'll be waiting in the woods near the old pond. I won't fight, I swear it. Thank you, Princess Dragomir.'

'Guardian Alto, thank you for being my tutor. Please take over from Guardian Loche with Lissa's education. Thank you, Princess Dragomir.'

'Novice Belikov, I've never once talked to you but I see you train each day. Please consider being my sister's Guardian, she needs someone strong and brave to protect her and that can't be me anymore. I award you the Dragomir star for excellence and wish for you to know, that you have always been my role model, since I first saw you train when I was seven and you were fourteen. I will aspire to be like you throughout my damnation, I'll fight against temptation and I'll continue to understand right and wrong. The Dragomir Star is in the wooden bureau in my bedchamber. Wear it with pride for you shall be the only one ever to have earned the medal. Accompany Guardian Petrov into the woods. Thank you from Princess Dragomir.'

I walked back to the bench and sat there for a few minutes before I heard shouts and footsteps from the house. I took a deep breath as several Guardians and a few Novices burst through the back of the large house.

"Princess! Are you alright?" Alberta yelled, running towards me. I held up a hand.

"Petrov, Alto and Belikov, take care of Lissa for me, I didn't mean for this to happen. You have to kill me," I told the gathering of dhampirs.

"Princess, what do you mean, if you mind my asking," Guardian Petrov inquired, stepping closer to me. I took two steps back.

"They turned me Guardian Petrov," my voice cracked and I moved my hair to show the two bloody puncture wounds on my neck. Lissa ran forward, pushing her way through the crowd and throwing her arms around my neck.

"Rose, you can't leave me, you said you'd always protect me! You promised Rose!" Lissa shouted at me and I pried her arms from my neck. She collapsed onto the floor in tears while the Guardians around us froze, unsure of what to do.

"I know Liss, I am protecting you, that's why I have to do this. I love you, you know that right?" Lissa nodded and I crouched down next to her, stroking her hair when she nodded weakly.

"I know," Lissa mumbled.

"I don't understand," someone piped up from the crowd and I sighed exasperatedly.

"Of course you don't Stan, what do you not understand?" I questioned begrudgingly, turning to the Guardian next to Alberta.

"You said you were Strigoi right?" People chuckled nervously when I facepalmed.

"Obviously, continue," I groaned.

"Your eyes aren't red," Guardian Alto stated simply. I clapped slowly while Lissa jumped up in excitement and hugged me tightly.

"Liss stop," I demanded and she looked at me, shocked at my harsh tone. "My eyes may not be red but they aren't mine and we both know it. I want you to remember me as your sister, not a Strigoi." I hugged her before turning to the Guardians. "Petrov, Belikov, I need your help." Alberta was stood in front of the rest and Dimitri was reading the sketchbook. "Yes Belikov, it's in the bureau in my room in the West Wing. Both of you, follow me," I commanded in such a tone, that no one could defy me. There was no compulsion behind my words either, I just didn't take no for an answer.

"Don't Rose, please don't do this," Lissa cried and I felt sorrow and worry flood me. "You can't leave me Rose, not like this."

"I left you already Liss, as soon as he bit me, but know that it wasn't by choice, I would never leave you unless I had to," I promised, "and I have to now. Goodbye Lissa." I kissed her cheek and walked over to Dimitri and Alberta. "You have to kill me," I whispered into Alberta's ear and she nodded grimly, following me when I began to head towards the forest. When we were halfway between the Guardians and the trees, my stomach churned and I stopped.

"What is it Princess?" Dimitri asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I'm not a Princess!" I shouted at him, infuriated at him calling me a Moroi title when I was dead, then span around quickly when I heard a twig snap in the woods. "They're here."

Three Strigoi leapt from the shadows, hands claw-like and fangs sharp. The two females hurled themselves at Dimitri while the male attacked Alberta. After the attack had begun, a young female slinked out of the shadows, watching me expectantly. A feral snarl ripped its way up my throat and I leapt at the brunette Strigoi, who was sneaking up behind Dimitri while the blonde kept him busy. I had the element of surprise and broke the Strigoi's neck easily while Guardians Petrov and Belikov finished off the other two.

"Why don't you fight with us young one?" The spectating Strigoi asked curiously when I attacked her. She fought well and, though I was inexperienced, I hit her with plenty of good blows and she littered my pale skin with a few bruises.

"Because I don't want to hurt the people I love," I confessed before Dimitri and I pinned her down and Alberta staked her. "Guardian Petrov, could you please follow me now, there are no more of," I hesitated, "my kind out there."

"Alright, Belikov you too," Alberta said, wiping her stake clean on the Strigoi's black slacks and standing up.

"I love you Lissa, I'm sorry," I called back to the bundle of tears surrounded defensively by guardians. I waited for a reply from my younger sister, but none came. In the silence, I turned for the forest and walked through the treeline. It was dark, eerily so, with the soft silver of moonlight filtering through the thick canopy above us.

We reached the pond, it was perfectly circular with blue water that shimmered beneath the light of the stars. I knelt down by the edge of the pond, my hands by my sides and my hair on one side of my neck to expose my bite, reminding them I was Strigoi, not Moroi anymore. "Here please Alberta." I requested. "This is the place in which I want to die."

She walked towards me, stake in hand, and knelt before me with the point of the charmed silver against my heart. Guardian Petrov hesitated, her eyes grew moist, her grip fumbled and the stake fell to the ground.

"I can't do this, I'm sorry," Alberta apologised, pinching the bridge of her nose then wiping a tear from her eye. "You will always be like a daughter to me."

"Guardian Belikov, you must kill me then," I instructed him. "It's your duty to all Moroi and Dhampirs." Dimitri dropped his stake to the ground and crossed his arms.

"I'm not staking an innocent person," he refused. I moved to the stake and picked it up to stab myself but tossed it away when it burned my flesh. "What are you doing Princess?"

"I'm not a Princess! Or a person! I was but I am not anymore, I am dead!" I shouted at him, inching towards the stake then gingerly picking it up again. I held it firmly in my grip even though the pain was searing hot. I felt my skin blistering beneath the silver but plunged it into my chest. I screamed out in agony, but too soon it was over. I was lying on the forest floor, head in hands, weeping uncontrollably. Dimitri crouched next to me and ran his hands through my hair. He had my stake in his hands, "You stopped this!" I hissed.

"Yes," Dimitri stated simply. I made a hand gesture to signal that he should explain a little more and he sighed before continuing, "Because you haven't done anything wrong and you won't harm anyone, it's not who you are, Princess."

"You don't know that," I whispered, when he took my hand to reassure me, "Goodbye Dimitri." I turned away but he pulled me back to him, my body pressed against his and his arm around my waist.

I crashed my lips to his, filled with passion and lust and heady from his immediate response: to kiss me back. Dimitri slipped his tongue into my mouth after he ran it along my bottom lip asking for permission, a request to which I quickly complied, and our kiss became heated and sweet. Dimitri's lip brushed one of my fangs and started to bleed, so I pulled away. "I'm sorry," I murmured, looking to the floor, ashamed.

I looked into his warm brown eyes one last time, before running into the forest as fast as I could. I heard him shouting my name and I soon stopped, scrambling up a tree and straddling a large bough. A few minutes later Dimitri burst into the clearing beneath me.

"Roza! Roza, where are you?" he called and I looked down at him, my heart wrenching from my chest. Tears formed in my eyes before trickling down my cool skin and over my full crimson lips.

They were tears of blood. The rich scent wafted up my nose and clouded my vision, Dimitri's heartbeat echoed in my ears and his veins pulsed visibly in his neck. My dry throat burned for his blood but instead I bit into my wrist. I felt weak from the blood loss but stronger from having drunk when I looked back to Dimitri. He still called my name, still searched for me, still unaware of my presence. A large crimson tear fell from my lips and stained Dimitri's white shirt. He pressed two fingers against it and brought it to his mouth, looking up at me and meeting my gaze. "Roza," Dimitri sighed. I jumped down from the branch, landing in a crouch in front of him. I was taller since my, transformation I guess, and I'd grown from my tiny 5'2" to above average at 5'6". Dimitri was still a foot taller than me though.

"Yes?" I asked.

"What was that?" Dimitri questioned, asking about the kiss.

"What was what?" I replied innocently, interlacing my fingers and playing with my thumbs childishly. Dimitri just raised an eyebrow at me and I sighed. "I'm not sure, sorry." I admitted sheepishly, "I just-" I was cut off by Dimitri's lips on mine. This kiss was not like the one before, it was gentler and smoother, a soft caress filled with sweet passion. Dimitri picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He held me up, rested my back against a tree and we continued the kiss. When we broke apart for air I asked, "And what was that?" I pretended to be joking but I actually really wanted to know the answer. I'd felt a lot for him for a long time but I'd never actually spoken once to him before.

"Me telling you how I feel, letting you know that I saw you each day with your brother watching me train and that I don't want you to leave," Dimitri summarised. I rested my forehead against his.

"You know I can't Dimitri, I've had to feed already," I confessed embarrassedly.

"But there isn't anyone out-" I cut him off with a kiss. He smiled against my lips and I tilted my head to initiate it again. "Here." I giggled.

"That's not the point," I told him, shifting the sleeve of my long sleeve, trying to hide the blood stain in the pale blue lace.

"Roza," Dimitri chided, "You shouldn't have fed from yourself, you can drink from a feeder like you used to, you can stay here at Court." I shook my head in dismissal.

"I can't drink from someone else and I will never be accepted, I'm Strigoi Dimitri and I have to face that," I kissed him again, "I have to leave." After he pressed a lingering kiss against my lips, he pulled at a chain with a metal dog-tag hung on it, from around his neck and fastened it around mine. The front read: 'D. Belikov, Guardian to the Court' and 'Per Ardua Ad Astra' engraved on the back of them. _Through hard times to the stars._ I recognised the words from my Latin classes and threw my arms around his neck. We shared a last, passionate kiss before I pulled away and, having made Dimitri promise to be Lissa's Guardian, walked away, stealing a few chaste kisses in my moments of hesitation.

That was the change; my world was flipped upside down in just half an hour. I went from being a content Moroi princess with a loving family to a heartbroken Strigoi with no family other than an eleven year old sister I'd had to abandon.

I fled. I'd been a dhampir, I was a Moroi and now I was Strigoi. I was the one. I was the Changeling.


	6. Chapter 6 BLOOD ROSE

CHAPTER SIX

BLOOD ROSE

I bit into his neck savagely, ripping out the Strigoi's throat before flicking my head and flinging it across the alleyway. I jumped up and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand to get rid of the blood before adjusting my purple off the shoulder sweater that I wore with denim shorts, tights and black knee high Converse sneakers. My eyes were a violent green and my skin a ghostly pallor, not the soft tan it had been in life. But that was years ago, and dwelling on the past only made it worse.

I pulled the thin silver knife from where the Strigoi had lodged it in my right thigh and slipped it into my pocket before scrambling up the outside of the rusty fire escape and leaping across the rooftops. I swung through an open window and closed it behind me, smiling at the boy in front of me.

"Hey Mason, what did you do while I was out?" I asked kindly, my voice misleadingly delicate, and jumped onto the black couch next to the red head.

"Nothing much, hacked the frequency from the Court so we can watch their news. They have a segment called 'The Blood Rose,' that's what they call you, and they keep count of how many kills you've made, that they know of anyway," Mason explained and I chuckled, kissing his cheek and standing up. "How many was it tonight?"

"Seven, can you grab the needle and ink?" I replied and Mason nodded before leaving the room and returning half a second later, ready to tattoo my back. I pulled my sweater off and sat backwards on a wooden chair in the spacious kitchen of the apartment. Minutes later, I had seven more black marks shaped like lightning bolts on my back. "623 total Mase, we done good kid, we done good."

Mason shook his head while laughing at my bad condescending old man impression.

"No Rose, you've done good, I'm the techie," he chuckled. My entire back was covered in black tattoos along with my neck and shoulders. Most guardians would get 2 or 3 Molnija in their entire career while I'd killed 623 Strigoi in seven years. Then again, I wasn't exactly a Guardian, or a dhampir, or alive for that matter.

I was Strigoi. A pale lifeless vampire that stalks the face of the Earth killing innocent people. Apart from the part where I supposedly killed innocent people, that I did not do.

I'd moved from Pennsylvania to Novosibirsk in Siberia just a week after I'd left Court and now shared an apartment with Mason in the city centre. I went hunting each night and we spent the day drawing, painting and doing charity work. I guess it was a silent plea to God to forgive me for being the Hellish creature that I was. I always drank from myself and had taught Mason to do the same since I found him four years ago, after he'd been abandoned by the one that had turned him.

"Rose? You okay?" Mason's voice broke my concentration and I snapped back to reality. "Rose?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just spaced out for a second. I was thinking about the night I was turned," I sighed. "I'm going to write to Lissa, I miss her and it's her eighteenth birthday today."

"Okay, there's paper in the studio. You could send her your sketchbook of her," Mason suggested. I flung my arms round his neck and kissed his forehead.

"That's an amazing idea! Thanks Mase," I called, running into the art studio. I shut the door behind me and looked around the room. The walls were light grey and they were covered with bright 'artistic' splatters of paint and orange shelves filled with my sketchbooks. The furthest wall was the same orange as the shelves and most of the paint splats, and it was covered in my paintings of Dimitri, Alberta, Mason and my family. I still loved Dimitri, I'd admitted my feelings about him to myself as soon as I left the US.

I pulled a light pink, A3 sketchbook off of one of the shelves on the left wall and placed it on my desk. It was my first 'Lissa Book,' I had to keep painting and drawing the people I loved so I didn't forget them. I opened the book and covered the inside of the rigid cardboard cover with white emulsion paint. I dried it with my air magic and put it to the side whole I wrote Liss a letter.

_'Happy Birthday Lissa! You're eighteen, technically older than me, not cool. I have always wished to be able to see you turned eighteen but alas, fate hasn't deemed me fit to have this privilege. _

_I haven't ever drunk from another, only from myself, and I go hunting every night. At Court you call me "Blood Rose", who came up with that? How is Court now that I'm talking about it?_

_I spend the days drawing, painting and doing charity work so I sent my first 'Lissa book' to you._

_I miss you so much Liss, lots of love,_

_Rosemarie Dragomir x'_

I folded the letter and slipped it into the front of the sketchbook before wrapping the entire book in brown parcel paper and tying it with string. I wrote our old address on the front, knowing that, if she had moved, it would be sent to her anyway. Pausing before I taped over the string, I put the package back down and picked up another piece of paper.

'_Dear Dimitri,_

_You might not remember me but I can't forget you. I love you, thank you for letting me go. I think that I may be nearing eternity in Purgatory but I think I'll be sent to Hell even after 623 kills._

_I've met your sister Viktoria, I was hunting outside of Baia and she tried to stake me but my shirt ripped and she saw the molnija on my back and refused to kill me. I still haven't forgiven her. _

_Eternal Love,_

_Rosemarie Dragomir x_

_P.S. Per Ardua Ad Astra – through hard times to the stars'_

I slipped Dimitri's letter into a white envelope, wrote 'Guardian Belikov' on the front and sealed it shut before putting it into the parcel and taping it shut. I jumped up with the package under my arm and exited the studio. "Mase, I'm just going to post this ok?"

"Alright Rose," Mason called back from the kitchen and I climbed out of the window in the living room that I'd entered through just minutes ago. I leapt between the tightly packed windows beneath the cover of night then dropped down five floors and kept running until I reached the Post Office. An elderly lady was stood behind the counter and she flinched when I walked into the small shop.

"Pennsylvania, US?" I asked, handing her the parcel. She nodded slowly, weighing it before printing off a white sticker and slapping it onto the brown paper. I got my purse out to pay the amount that had flashed up on the till but the grey-haired lady shook her head when I pulled out the equivalent of forty dollars. She pushed the package down the metal chute before shutting the pyrex window between the two of us. Sighing, I left the shop and walked into a coffee shop across the street, counting the homeless people gathered on the street. Twenty-four. That's horrific, I thought to myself as I entered the shop. "Twenty four cups of tomato soup and twenty four coffees please Miss," I asked the young lady behind the counter. She looked at me in shock before shrugging and turning to the guy next to her, passing the order to him and pointing me to the waiting area at the end of the shop.

I walked out into the street with a tray of tomato soup and coffee. There were two baristas walking behind me with two more trays. I set mine on the ground and told them to wait for a second; I walked up the street, talking to all of the people sat on the pavement. When I got back to the coffee shop, there were a group of people stood around the baristas. I started handing out coffee and soup to the people I'd spoken to earlier. While I was talking to them, the old lady from the Post Office came out to talk to me.

"You aren't like the other ones," she said simply.

"I don't hope to be like them, I changed to save my sister," I told her and her face softened. "Here," I handed the woman a note. "Can you make sure that they finish their drink?" She nodded, "Thank you."

When I got back to the apartment, Mason was sat on the couch on his laptop playing around on the Internet. The next few days passed uneventfully, I killed 22 more Strigoi and Mason gave me the Molnija for the kills so I had 645 in total and most of my right side was covered now. On December 1st, I finished drinking from myself and went to sleep because feeding off of my own blood always made me weak for a while afterwards.

"Rose! Mail!" Mason shouted, banging on the bedroom door. I shot out of bed and ran through the door, snatching the envelopes from the kitchen counter and tearing the smaller one open first.

_'Rose, I miss you so much! Where do you live at the moment? What's happened since I saw you last?_

_Tatiana Ivashkov became Queen after Mom and Dad died but lots of people want me to run for the throne. I'm currently dating Christian Ozera and we've been together for three years, he's the one that helped me get better after you left. I'm sorry I couldn't defend myself. _

_Stan made up the name in class, he took over my teaching as you asked and I just graduated as top of class. Spirit has some bad side effects but I'm on medication so it's not too bad. _

_Guardian Belikov wears the Dragomir Star as you requested but he left Court a few days ago, so now Guardians Petrov, Alto and Castile are assigned to me. _

_Thank you for your sketchbook, it's beautiful! I never knew you were so good at art. _

_Keep in touch, your loving little sister,_

_Princess Vassilissa Dragomir x' _

I frowned and penned a simple reply, telling her about Mason and asking questions about Christian before tentatively opening Dimitri's letter. My eyes were shut and I hesitantly opened them after unfolding the paper. What if he rejected my love? I thought pessimistically.

_'Dear Roza,_

_I could never forget you, I have left Court. I'm sorry to have to leave your sister but you old friend Eddison Castile is an excellent Guardian and she is definitely safe with Guardians Alto and Petrov. I need to see you. _

_I love you Roza, please come to Baia. I got here a day ago and I have to see you again. Viktoria is your biggest fan, she has drawings and photos of you pinned to her wall, and she looks at videos of you fighting to learn your techniques for when she becomes a Guardian. _

_Meet me at my house as soon as possible,_

_I love you,_

_Dimitri xxx_

_P.S. I love you so much Roza'_

I grinned and ran into my bedroom to pack, shoving dresses, t-shirts and shorts into my large blue backpack then putting in three pairs of heels, a pair of black pumps and some trainers in on top of the clothes. I pulled it off of the bed and took it to the front door.

"Mason! I've got to go for a few days, you can come with or stay here, your choice?" I called through the flat. The redhead appeared next to me.

"I'll come with you, I don't want to relapse like last time," he said sadly.

"Mase, it's alright, it was one person in four years, accidents happen," I comforted him. I hated talking about people like they were easy to replace because it hurt me, knowing that the person he drank from had family, friends and a job. "We're going to Baia, I have to see Dimitri." Mason wiggled his eyebrows suggestively so I punched him on the arm. "Bedroom. Pack. Rucksack. Now."

"Remember your dance stuff Rose," Mason called as I sat down on the couch. I jumped up and ran into my room, grabbing both pairs of ballet shoes, en Pointe and flat, as well as a crimson satin leotard and a silk black skirt that I wore over it. I picked up a black cropped cardigan before putting it all in my backpack by the front door. "I told you," Mason shouted childishly when he heard me drop the bag onto the floorboards and he appeared in the doorway with a black and yellow rucksack slung over his shoulder.

"Shut up Mase, come on," I ordered and dragged him out of the front door, locking up before we jumped down the fire escape.


	7. Chapter 7 LOST AND FOUND

CHAPTER SEVEN

LOST AND FOUND

We ran to Baia, taking just an hour to sprint the three hour car journey through the snowy Siberian landscape. Mason fed from me once we arrived in the small village before I sent him with my bags to set up a tent if there was nowhere to stay. I walked through the village and along the outskirts, making my way the clear stream I had heard the last time I'd visited. Of course, that time I'd almost been killed by Dimitri's sister Viktoria, whom I did not put up a fight against, until she saw my molnija and let me go, even when I pleaded with her to kill me. I still hadn't found it in my heart to forgive her.

I hopped into the ten feet deep trench with the water in it. There was just a foot of water slinging to the earthy trench wall but in the middle it was about four foot deep. Knotted roots hung in loops from the soil but some were thin and pale while others, probably belonging to the tall firs a hundred or so feet away, were thick and gnarled.

The trench was wide and the stream cold, the water icy even to my frozen skin. It swept quickly through a channel at the end of the snowy field into which I had wondered. I climbed put of the trench using the roots as hand holds and sat by it, listening to the sounds of a child playing further up the field. Pondering how to speak to Dimitri, I quietly watched the small boy kicking a battered football around in the frost. He looked happy, his brown hair speckled with snowflakes and his chocolate eyes… oddly familiar. I held in a breath. Paul.

I remembered Dimitri once talking about his nephew when I'd asked him about his family in class, before I'd unveiled my true self. It was eery, looking at Paul Belikov kicking up snow when he missed the ball, and I felt as if I was peering into Dimitri's past. It felt wrong and intrusive but I felt warm at the knowledge of Dimitri maybe having played football here once, in the white field wrapped up in as many scarves as his mother Olena could get on him before he ran out of the house with the same football, just a bit newer, tucked under his arm.

I snapped back to reality when I heard a yelp. Paul was at the edge of the deep trench, crying while his football bobbed in a small eddy of water ten feet below.

"Uncle Dimka's ball," Paul whispered to himself in despair. He suddenly set his jaw, wiped away his tears with one of the twenty or so scarves wrapped tightly around his neck, and edged closer to the drop. I was still. My mind couldn't process what I was seeing. Dimitri's nephew was about to climb into a trench of freezing water for a football. Paul put his second leg over the edge and fumbled for a hand grip. But he didn't find one. And he fell.

Before he could splash into the icy river, I leapt the fifty feet to where he would hit the water, catching him in my hands and pulling him into me. Paul was wet from the splashes from my landing and his leg was twisted and disfigured. I took my coat off with difficulty, wrapping it around his shivering body while I removed a thick brown scarf from his neck and threaded it through the highest root I could reach. I held onto the two ends of it with both hands and pulled myself up enough to let go of the scarf and press myself against the wall.

"Paul, it's going to be alright," I soothed him as I moved the scarf from near my ankles to just above my head. "I'll make sure you are alright," I comforted in Russian.

"Are you sure? I'm cold," Paul mumbled. I noticed then that his lips were a little blue. A Russian boy that can take the cold? Really? I pulled us up again and the top of the trench reached my waist. I led him on the snow while I clambered out, grabbing his scarf, before picking Paul up again and running to the house at the top of the field. I burst in through the door and ran into the main room, laying Paul's shivering body on the couch. A hive of activity flurried around me but an elderly woman's shout kept anyone from touching me or moving Paul as I bit my wrist. I pressed it to Paul's lips.

"Drink this Paul," I instructed gently.

"What is it?" he grumbled. I heard weak chuckles behind me.

"Cocoa, come on now. It'll help warm you up," I lied and he sipped a little of my blood.

"Funny tasting cocoa," Paul muttered. Bloody stubborn boy.

"It has syrup in as well, my secret recipe," Paul just nodded and kept drinking. I began to feel dizzy as Paul's cheeks turned a soft pink and I took in my surroundings as best as I could with my now blurred vision.

"I don't want anymore," Paul decided before pushing my hand away. I stood up weakly and turned around. Four women cowered in the kitchen while an elderly lady sat knitting on the couch behind me. A man stood in front of me. A man so tall, so handsome, he reminded me of one person.

"Roza?" Dimitri asked, his voice warm and hopeful. I nodded and he dropped his stake, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Never leave me again, agreed?" I shook my head as a girl in her early twenties engulfed me in a hug.

"Blood Rose!" Viktoria squeaked. "You are back!" I waved when she released me from her death grip.

"Hello Viktoria," I growled. The women in the corner cowered, the eldest looking extremely anxious, more so than the other two terrified women. "I'm Rozalia Dragomir, or creature of Hell, whichever you prefer."

"Mama, Roza is the Blood Rose," Viktoria announced and even though my gaze was still locked on Dimitri's gorgeous eyes, I saw the women loosen up a bit and step towards us cautiously. I broke Dimitri's stare to look at Paul. "Roza?" I turned to Viktoria, "I asked what happened?"

"I was sat by the river at the bottom of the field and I saw Paul playing football by himself. I knew he had to be Dimitri's nephew because he used to talk about you guys all the time, assuming you're Olena, Karoline, Sonya and Yeva?" They nodded stiffly in acknowledgement so I continued, "I got lost in my thoughts than I heard Paul crying. His football was gone and he was whispering 'Uncle Dimka's football' over and over. Shit, I'll be right back," I shot out of the doorway, Dimitri trailing behind me. I was sixty feet from the trench when I leapt. I landed at the edge of the river and held my hands over the water. The icy blue wrapped around the football that was caught in some weed-rushes and roots lining the stream. It snaked towards me on an arm of water. I stopped the water and the ball dropped but I carried it to me on a fast gust of wind and caught it in my hands. I span round. "Dimitri, I've missed you. I believe this is yours," I said, holding the wet football out to him. He kicked it up the field and I cocked my head to the side in confusion as it soared through the air.

"It's wet," Dimitri answered my unspoken question so I, again, manipulated the air to carry the football to me before pulling away the water film on the ball and handing it to Dimitri. "Well, it was wet at the time." I smiled up at him until he kicked the ball to the house. I pit my hands on my hips, about to argue before he interrupted me by crashing his lips to mine. Dimitri was warm and I knew that I would feel cold and hard as marble to him but I couldn't stop the fire that was burning between us, the electric current springing through my skin at every touch. When we finally broke apart Dimitri was gasping for air, unlike me. Then again, I couldn't breathe. I had found it fairly ironic for the past few years, to have complete control over two elements that I have no need for but my old self would have surely died without either. "I missed you too." Dimitri confirmed and I chuckled softly. "You shouldn't have left Rose," he chided gently.

"I had to, how's Lissa? And Eddie, Adrian and Christian?" I asked eagerly and Dimitri stiffened. "What? What's wrong?" Worry flooded through me: something had happened to one of them.

"They're fine but Roza, Aaron and Mason are dead," Dimitri whispered. I fell to the ground with crimson tears spilling from my neon green eyes, my knees hitting the snow with a dull thud. I knew Mason wasn't dead, he was with me now but as a Strigoi. I had always had my suspicions that it was him but Mason never told me his surname and he had changed a lot from when he was a dhampir. He looked younger, maybe fifteen, and his blonde hair was now a violent ginger.

"Aaron..." I mumbled weakly. "Dimitri, Mason's not dead. He's with me, here. I just didn't know he was Mason Ashford." Dimitri looked to me, crouching down next to me and pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Come on Roza, let's go give Paul back his ball," Dimitri distracted, lifting me up into his arms. I didn't protest as he carried me back into his home, I was busy trying to stop crying blood. We walked into the house and the bustling stopped. I could just imagine what Dimitri's family saw: a seventeen year old Strigoi crying tears of glistening red blood into her twenty four year old Guardian lover's chest. There was something seriously wrong with that picture. "Roza, tell them your story," Dimitri prompted. I nodded and jumped out of his arms, wiping away my tears and standing tall before Dimitri's family.

"Seven years ago, my little sister and I were playing with our magic in our garden. My parents and brother had died a few years before, so I'd made it my job to care for her. I pretended to be a Dhampir, changing my eye colour from green to brown and making people forget me if they recognised me by using compulsion. We sat on a bench in the garden when a Strigoi came out from the trees. Having little time to react, I threw Lissa behind me before turning to the Strigoi. I was too late though and I got bitten. The Strigoi forced me to drink his blood while I got my stake from my pocket and then I killed him. I sent Lissa to get help while I wrote a note to Dimitri, Lissa and two of my teachers, ordering them to protect my sister because they had known of my true identity the whole time." I told them before I noticed Viktoria waving her hand in the corner of the room, "Yes?"

"You're Princess Dragomir right?" she asked anxiously. I sighed sadly and shook my head.

"I was but now my sister has that responsibility. I am no longer fit to be the Dragomir Princess. However powerful I may be, I am dead to them, to myself." I let another tear slip and, before I knew it, Yeva wrapped her arms around me.

"You are the most alive of us all Princess. You are not Strigoi. You are one of the Mullo, a race of immortal vampires with twin magic that ruled in the old times but now they are null. You are the last of the Mullo child, you need to take the Moroi crown and rule your people. They are, pure, kind-hearted, strong-willed, just and brave, that is you child." Dimitri's grandmother told me and pressed a piece of cool metal into my hand. I took it and looked at the delicate silver necklace. It was a small link chain with a silver ring about an inch in diameter that hung in the centre of the necklace. There was a trident like design across the centre of the ring with tiny blue crystals making intricate designs across the shiny metal. I looked up at Yeva: "My great-grandfather was St. Vladimir, the last Mullo. Until now that is," she explained

"If we are immortal, then why am I the only one?" I asked incredulously. The old lady chuckled at my suspicion before expression grew stony and cold.

"The humans hunted them, with knives and fire and arrows and swords. They soon learned that the blood drinkers could only be killed by the purest of any race so they trained innocent children to kill the Mullo from birth. Groups of sixty or more eight year olds armed with daggers and swords would lay chase on a single Mullo, and you could not do anything to harm them for the were pure and their blood would be on your hands." Yeva explained and I felt sick at the thought.

"if I'm Mullo, does that mean I can go home?" I tried and Yeva smiled, nodding. I threw myself at her. "Thank you thank you thank you."

"It is an honour Your Majesty," she bowed low and was soon followed by the other family members. Dimitri bowed as well, snorting softly when I glared at him. I signalled for everyone to rise, blushing at the power.

"Your Highness, you need to speak now how your mother Rhea taught you to speak." Olena told me from the corner of the room. I nodded and turned to Paul.

"Good day Paul. I trust you feel better now?" I asked, crouching down to the young boy's height and talking as I had been instructed to by my mother when she was Queen. Paul nodded quickly, "Wonderful, would you like your ball back?" He grinned and I picked it up from the floor, handing it to him. Smiling, Paul ran to the door. He turned around abruptly at the doorway.

"Thank you Queen Roza," Paul bowed clumsily then ran from the room. I wasn't comfortable with that thought but I did feel as though it made sense. I was different to everyone else, I could never harm anyone, unless they had foul intentions or pasts or they were Strigoi. The thought of harming the pure and gentle repulsed me.

"Dimitri, I have to go to Court," I told him and he nodded before walking to the stairs. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to pack," Dimitri told me, before walking up the stairs.


	8. Chapter 8 HIT AND MISS

CHAPTER EIGHT  
HIT AND MISS

We got to Pennsylvania within two days. I'd explained to Mason everything that I'd found out:

_"Mason Sebastian Ashford! You dirty scumbag! You lying bastard!" I yelled shrilly as he walked towards the Belikovs' home before stringing together every curse under the sun in a furious torrent of anger and hurling it at him. Dimitri wrapped his arms around my waist before I said something I would regret and turned me towards him. _

_"Roza, you're the true Queen, you can't use language like that," he joked in a bid to calm me. I can't say that I worked, but I chuckled lightly before turning back to Mason, who had now reached us. _

_"Rose, let me explain-" Mason started before I interrupted him. _

_"Save it for someone who cares Mr Ashford, Dimitri and I are leaving for Court. You must stay here and protect the Belikovs whilst training Viktoria," I ordered him. Mason glared at me. _

_"Since when have you given out orders?" He asks sarcastically. I growled. _

_"Since I found out I was the proper Queen," I replied, taking Dimitri's hand and leading him with me away from Mason. _

"Roza?" Dimitri's voice snapped me back to the present. We were in a blue Honda, a horrifically average thing with crappy air conditioning and a crackly stereo. Dimitri had picked it up in Spokane when we landed in Washington before we drove to Court. "We're here."

"Of course," I acknowledged, swallowing a gulp. I was truly nervous, what if they didn't let me in? "Dimitri, will they let me in?" I questioned nervously. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I'll get out of the car; they may be able to recognise me better then."

"What if they try to hurt you Roza?" Dimitri asked worriedly. I put my hand on his thigh as we pulled up to the gate. We stopped and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"I'll be fine, they cannot harm me," I promised him before stepping out of the car. I approached the Guardians. There were three of them on guard and one that I recognised, a twenty-something year old man with blonde hair who watched me with wary blue eyes. "Good day Mr Castile. How have the past years been to you?" I asked, my voice ringing and polite but with an air of regal formality. I wanted to keep up appearances.

"Rose?" I nodded, "Why are you here?"

"Why Eddie, I'm Mullo. I'm here to visit my sister and by Queen to my people." I stated simply. Eddie crackled something into his radio. I took it upon myself not to eavesdrop, I couldn't be bothered. My thoughts were busied with Dimitri as he walked towards me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and hummed an old Russian song into my ear. I smiled at him and kissed his cheek. "Alberta!" I screamed in happiness when I saw her approaching with two Moroi I faintly I recognised. I threw my arms around her before taking in the appearance of the other two women.

"Rosie?" the blonde girl asked. She had blonde hair and jade eyes: jade Dragomir eyes. "Rose! It's you!" Lissa ran up to me and I wrapped my arms around her. She cried into my shoulder and I tears come to my eyes. I pulled away from her and she looked sad. "What did I do?"

"Nothing Liss, I swear. I don't want to ruin your pretty dress," I explained before wiping away a few tears of blood from my eyes. Lissa nodded in understanding.

"Good afternoon Miss," I greeted the elderly lady stood a few feet away. I had met her a few times in passing during my time in Court but did not know her name or her status.

"I would like for you to leave." The grey-haired women snapped. My body automatically straightened. I, however, did not move. "Did you not here my order? I am Queen, you must obey me." She near screeched. I nearly chuckled.

"It is nice to meet you at last Queen Tatiana, I am Princess Rozalia Dragomir." Her mouth straightened into a disbelieving line. "I am not Strigoi, but Mullo. You know this though, don't you?" Everything fell into place. She recognized me: my eyes were not that of a Strigoi, but I was clearly not Moroi, or Dhampir. "The throne, on which you sit, is truly mine." I was smug, I'll admit, but I didn't appreciate her attitude.

"Rose, I don't think this is the time." Dimitri whispered into my ear, taking my hand in his. I looked to him and saw the fear in his eyes before nodding, not wanting to upset him. "Queen Tatiana, would you be as kind as to let me spend time with my younger sister whom I have not seen for the past seven years?" I asked sarcastically.

"I would mind," Tatiana replied. Bitch. I smiled and took Lissa's hand, leading her round the old lady only to be met with eight Guardians. "Deal with her."

"Hola Senors," I waved and the Guardians looked to each other in confusion, giving me time to kick up some snow and pull the water from the ice crystals. I flung it at them with a wave of my hand and froze the water around their feet. Tatiana glared at me and I smirked, walking with Dimitri and Lissa towards the Court buildings. "Liss, do you want to introduce me to all of your friends?" I asked her and she nodded.

Lissa led us into a large white town house with four floors and a basement. On the ground floor there was a kitchen and a dining room while the floor below housed a games room, with a snooker table, mini bowling alley and ping pong table along with skee ball and a basketball hoop behind a comfortable green seven-seated couch. The second floor was Lissa's, with a study and an en suite in the large purple and pink bedroom. The third floor had two rooms: a swimming pool and a lounge with blue couches and white walls.

"Rose, this is your bedroom." Lissa told me as we reached the top of the stairs for the highest floor. The ceiling was slanted as the room had been converted from being the loft into a regal but modern looking bedroom. A red double bed stuck out from the far wall and above it was a balcony of sorts, reached by a wooden ladder beside the bed. There was a scarlet desk in the far right corner of the room, snug between a black bookshelf and a white closet on the warm, thick grey carpet.

"Liss, it's perfect," I exclaimed in awe, my mouth slightly open as I walked into the room. There were canvas prints of some of my paintings of the two of us together that had been taken from the sketchbook I sent her. I hugged my sister and mumbled into her hair, "I missed you Liss."

"I missed you too Rosie," she whispered back. A knock at the door alerted me to Dimitri's presence. "I've got to go and find Christian and the others," Lissa excused herself, leaving me and Dimitri alone. Suddenly I felt sick so I span around checking for Strigoi, but I knew there were none. This was different. I sat on the bed and Dimitri joined me.

"Roza, are you ok love?" he asked, concerned. I nodded and smiled at him weakly. "Roza, what's wrong?" I laid my head in his lap and swung my legs up onto the bed, tucking my knees into my chest. Dimitri stroked my hair gently and I sighed.

"I just, I miss having time with you and there's Queen Bitch to deal with and I just want her to go die," I whined. Dimitri chuckled before managing to pick me up and tuck me into the bed. "Guardian Belikov," I trailed off, sticking out my bottom lip, "can you get me a donut please?"

"Of course Roza, go to sleep and I'll have one here when you wake up," Dimitri promised and I smiled before drifting off to sleep.

"Roza, wake up," Dimitri shook my shoulder lightly and I stirred, throwing off the covers before running to the bathroom and emptying the contents of my stomach into the toilet. I felt Dimitri hold my hair out of my face while I wretched until I sat back on my knees and he wrapped his arms around me. "Oh Roza, are you alright?" I nodded.

"I'm fine now, I don't know what happened," I told him, standing up and turning to him.

'Rose! Rose are you OK?' Lissa screamed in my head and I cursed vehemently. Dimitri looked at me with questioning eyes so I tapped my forehead indicating the bond I had with Lissa. 'Look at this!' An image suddenly burst into my head: Lissa held a baby in each arm, both wrapped in blue blankets while Christian held a third baby, wrapped in pink.

"Lissa's pregnant with triplets Dimitri!" I yelled happily, before and idea sprung to mind, "That's why I just threw up I bet you, morning sickness." Dimitri nodded, a huge smile on his face as he picked me up and carried me to the bedroom.

"The Princess asked for you an hour ago, I told her I'd wake you in time for lunch with the Queen so we have ten minutes and you had to dress nice," Dimitri explained. I flipped out of his arms and ran to my suitcase, grabbing one of my dresses and holding it up against me. "Roza, Lissa bought some dresses up for you while you were sleeping. They belonged to your mother," I stood still. "They're in the closet," Dimitri told me and I reached gingerly to the handle of the black cabinet door. Having opened the closet, I stepped back in awe.

Every single one of my mother's gowns were in the closet. All of the dresses were grand and looked to be from 12th century England. I picked out a dark green one with golden embroidery that ran up the bodice. I pulled of my clothes, grabbed a black front-lace corset from the bottom of the closet and put it on myself before pulling on the gown.

"Do me up?" I asked Dimitri, who had changed into his Guardian uniform while I'd been lacing up my corset.

"Of course maya kraveetsa," Dimitri said and I smiled. "It means my beauty," he explained whilst tightening the bodice of my dress.

"I know what it means Dimitri, no more secret conversations for you it seems, what will you do?" I asked sarcastically. Dimitri chuckled before finishing doing up my dress.

"I'd quite like to do you Roza but unfortunately we have a lunch to attend," I scowled at his words but slipped on a pair of elegant yet simple black high heels and standing before the mirror. I brushed my hair and fixed it into a centre part. I braided my long bangs and fastened them together at the back of my head leaving the rest of my dark hair to cascade far past my shoulders. I wore only a little mascara, eyeliner and lip-gloss so my makeup looked natural. My dress, well, it was stunning.

The dark hue of forest green, paired with the natural makeup and braids, made me look elfin. The bodice on the dress was tight and made my waist look tiny, then fell past my hips showing that I was slender but still had curves in all the right places. "Roza, you look amazing." Dimitri breathed into my ear.

"You don't look too shabby yourself Comrade," I joked, turning to poke his rock hard abs, "You clean up well and however much I would love for you to 'do' me right now, though I resent your word choice, we must go to see Queen Bitch." Dimitri laughed and opened the door for me.

When we arrived in the large dining hall, all conversation stopped. The Dragomir Princess, rumoured to have been turned Strigoi just days after declaring that she wasn't a Dhampir training to be a Guardian but in fact the daughter of the ruling monarchs and a Moroi with two specialisations, entering the Queen's dining hall wearing a gown fit for a queen.

"Princess Rozalia, how delightful to see you once again," Tatiana greeted me with a fake smile plastered on her old wrinkly face. "Guardian Belikov," she nodded to Dimitri.

"Tatiana, I have a matter of great importance to discuss with you, we must speak immediately if that is of convenience," I declared and there was not one person who wasn't shocked at my calling the queen by her first name.

"I believe that, in your time," Tatiana took a second to search for a word in order to remind everyone of my time as a Strigoi, "away." she settled on, "Things have changed, you are no longer as special as you prince were and your parents are no longer King and Queen. I am." I growled loudly, dropping Dimitri's hand and stalking toward her.

"You are not fit to speak of my parents Tatiana, in fact you are not fit to stand in front of me," I snarled, not caring about the hundreds of eyes on me. Tatiana chuckled and I raised every single drop of liquid in the massive room to the ceiling, before freezing it there to glisten stoically, glimmering with beauty even though I could make it drop at any second and kill everyone on the Dining Hall.

"Princess, stop this nonsense," Tatiana commanded. In reply I merely took off my necklace. "Surely not..."

"Beautiful isn't it? Tatiana would you care to enlighten the members of the Court on the history of the Mullo?" Tatiana nodded quietly before standing from her throne at the long table council table that ran the length of the large hall. "Thank you," I said with gratitude as she gestured for me to take it. Dimitri came and sat in the Ivashkov chair on my right after the old man had been told to move by Tatiana while Lissa remained sat on my left in the Dragomir seat, Christian next to her representing the Ozeras. Lissa told me to explain through the bond, to which I answered aloud, "I think Tatiana is just about to." I quickly added, "We have to talk later, I am happy for you though."

"Long ago Moroi lived amongst another race of vampires, far superior to them. They were an immortal people of purity and justice and they ruled over the Moroi, for the Moroi knew that the Mullo were better. The Mullo were the guardians of innocence and so could not harm any sinless person or animal. They drank the blood of the dead and had power over two elements of magic," Tatiana spoke out, her voice loud and strong before stopping to look back to me. I nodded and she continued, "The Mullo were, however, killed years ago by young human children trained to slaughter them, but the Mullo refused to fight back, for they believed that harming any child would reduce them to a level far worse than that of a Strigoi. It seems though, that one remained and I, customary to old law, abdicate so the Dragomir Princess may take the throne." My jaw, along with everyone else in the room's, dropped. I hadn't expected that to happen and neither had they.


End file.
